Monday, January 26, 2015

Most countries have significant internal contrasts, with areas of great wealth and areas of great poverty, often in very close proximity to each other.

Recently I experienced such a set of contrasts but in two churches in Kenya.

One week I'm preaching in a church of about 100 people, including children. It is a mud church, on someone's personal property. It is in a rural area, surrounded by maize fields and cows pass by the windows regularly. The service starts at 10 am and finishes around 1 pm. The people all hang around after the service and share a meal together.

David Masai, a pastor of the CRCEA, also a trainer for CbBaM

The next week I preached three services in a church of about 6000 people, with choreographed dancers, elaborate sound systems and city folks. I am told I have 20 minutes to preach for the first sermon, 30 minutes for the second service, and 40 minutes for the third service. At 20 minutes during the first service, the pastor (a student at ATS) gets up to let me know time is up. Time is managed to the minute. People are herded out the back door, while a flood of people enter the front door, tightly managed by ushers, to allow the next service to start on time.

AIC Fellowship Church in Eldoret

Back in the US I am struck by the contrasts in food compared to what I eat in Kenya. There is a great website that shows what a week of groceries looks like around the world (To see it, go here):

In Cairo, Egypt, an average family spends $78/week on food.

In Ecuador, $32/week

In North Carolina, USA, $342/week

In China, $65/week

In Mexico, $189/week

Food for one week for a family in Ecuador

In Mali, $30/week

In Kuwait, $252/week

In Japan, $361/week

In Italy, $295/week

In India, $45/week

In Germany, $568/week

In Cuba, $64/week

In Canada, $392/week

In Sarajevo, $90/week

In Australia, $428/week

Food for one week for a family in the US

What is interesting is how different the food is in each country - very processed versus very fresh. And I just learned last week that about 40% of the food grown in the US ends up in the landfill due to waste. This is mostly because of the amount of food that we throw away in restaurants, institutions, and our own homes.

Lands of contrasts. These are just two very small contrasts of course. One could list thousands and thousands. But it can feel overwhelming when changing between cultures. I continue to get flashes and waves of the contrasts from day to day, and often find it difficult to articulate.

I will be dropping the blog to every other week for a period of time, especially while so much of my time is being consumed by writing the Discipling Marketplace Leaders book and manual. I continue to appreciate your prayers for this process!

I could see these two children from my seat in the rural church. They studied the back of my car for such a long time, pointing things out to each other. It was very cute.

Bob Reed

What does it mean to be a "Reed in the Wind?"

From Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey:

The Virtue of Flexibility

Trees look strong compared with the wild reeds in the field. But when the storm comes the trees are uprooted, whereas the wild reeds, while moved back and forth by the wind, remain rooted and are standing up again when the storm has calmed down.

Flexibility is a great virtue. When we cling to our own positions and are not willing to let our hearts be moved back and forth a little by the ideas or actions of others, we may easily be broken. Being like wild reeds does not mean being wishy-washy. It means moving a little with the winds of the time while remaining solidly anchored in the ground. A humorless, intense, opinionated rigidity about current issues might cause these issues to break our spirits and make us bitter people. Let's be flexible while being deeply rooted.

Paying Attention to the Wind

"The wind blows where it wills." That was Jesus, who compared the spirit of God to the wind. The Reeds have followed the Wind from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Monrovia, Liberia, to Accra, Ghana, then to Kitale, Kenya. Now the work of Discipling Marketplace Leaders is spreading through West, East, and Northern Africa, as well as to Central America. Join Renita as she still seeks to understand what it means to be "shaken by the Wind."